Charles Leclerc lets his anger at Ferrari explode at Silverstone, with sources nearby claiming the driver raged at his Ferrari team during the post race debrief. After finishing fourth in the British Grand Prix, Charles Leclerc did not hide his anger toward Ferrari. The Monegasque believes that his team has deprived him of winning the race, even though he had a much better pace than his teammate and winner Carlos Sainz Jr.
The tenth round of the 2022 Formula One World Championship took place this afternoon at Silverstone, for the British Grand Prix. It was a race full of twists and turns, which took fans through all kinds of emotions. The first was fear and anxiety as Guanyu Zhou’s Alfa Romeo flipped over on its roof and flew into the fences after a long slide on the gravel trap. Then the excitement of watching Max Verstappen battle it out with the two Ferraris, followed by Charles Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton, Sergio Perez and Fernando Alonso in the final laps.
While it was Spaniard Carlos Sainz Jr who came out on top, crossing the line first, two men lost out. Max Verstappen drove over a piece of debris and damaged his car, causing his performance to drop considerably and leaving him in seventh place. But the unluckiest driver of the day was certainly Charles Leclerc. Despite contact with Sergio Perez, which damaged his front wing, the Monegasque was on some serious pace at the British track.
Faster than his team-mate Carlos Sainz Jr, who was leading at the time, the former Sauber driver was denied by his team to overtake the much slower Spaniard. And although Ferrari decided to give Leclerc the advantage by placing him first through the pit stops, the race was turned on its head when Esteban Ocon’s retirement led to the intervention of the safety car.
A safety car that once again demonstrated Ferrari’s shortcomings in terms of strategy: instead of calling Leclerc in, who was first in the Grand Prix and in the fight for the world title, the Scuderia inexplicably brought in Sainz Jr, who was second and had a slower pace. This strategy enabled the Spaniard to win, but it also meant that Leclerc, who seemed to have the chance to win, finished fourth, frustrated by his team’s plans.
A bizarre situation that obviously made the main driver very angry, who absolutely did not understand this decision:
“I could have stopped, we could have but I was asked to stay on the track. So that’s what I did. Honestly, I am very, very disappointed. Especially for the first part of the race, I feel like I lost a lot of time (behind Sainz), but we’ll look at it with the team internally”, he declared on Canal + after the race.
When asked by Laurent Dupin who works for the French TV station if the fact that Max Verstappen (7th) only scored a few points today was a consolation, Charles Leclerc replied with a simple “Yes…” as he walked away from the microphone looking angry as hell. The atmosphere was said to be shocking within the team, with Leclerc understandably raging at the pitwall decision makers.
Exactly the same (beginners) mistake that Mercedes Benz made in Abu Dhabi 2021. GET them new new tyres whenever the opportunity comes begging
Yes. Exactly. And I already read that LH complained about the safetycar compromising his win (sic). I’m just waiting for Wolf to start demanding to fire the racedirector.
Mercedes didn’t make a strategic blunder since race control influenced the outcome.
Don’t understand how it’s possibe to make so many strategy mistakes and still not learn afterwards. They could have easily pitted both cars, maybe losing one place for the second car but with Ferrari’s pace, would not have been too difficult to take that place back
Leclerc lost at least 40 points due to Ferrari poor strategy management.
Leclerc certainly wouldn’t have lost a position unless Hamilton would’ve done the opposite, i.e., stayed out & probably not even Sainz, as he had a decent buffer to both Leclerc & Hamilton if the latter would’ve pitted regardless of what Leclerc does.
I think it’s about time pitting under the safety car was stopped. It affects to many results and compromises true racing. The US owners are in danger of WWE motor racing. They already have a heel in the form of Max because of biased media. The ones on my XJ8 are four years old with plenty of tread!
The problem is you end up like yesterday in Indy car, where race control try to not throw the safety car till everyone has had a chance to pit, which might not be safe. But as with Mercedes in Abu Dhabi Ferrari gambled on leaning LeClerc out.
Ferrari never misses a chance to f**k up the chances for the greatest drivers. Ask Prost, Alonso, Vettel, but especially Alonso and Prost.
Schumacher was an exception, msybe because of Jean Todt.
Since Todt, Ferrari is a disaster.
However, Alpine firing its key people just ahead of the season is IMO just as idiotic. And there are other examples.